Businesses provide facilities to allow their customers to have a better experience or shop more comfortably. For example, many stores provide shopping carts for their customers to allow the customers to transport merchandise in their stores and to their vehicles. Stores also provide shopping cart corrals in their parking lots so the stores' customers can return the shopping carts after the customers have transported any purchased merchandise to their vehicles. Providing shopping cart corrals reduces vehicle damage complaints by customers by supplying the customers with a location to return their shopping carts, instead of the customers leaving the shopping carts in unoccupied parking spaces in the stores' parking lots. Shopping carts left in unoccupied parking spaces are more likely to roll (or be accidentally pushed) into a vehicle parked in the parking lot and cause damage to the body or paint of the vehicle, as well as damage the cart. Shopping cart corrals also help keep parking lots organized and reduce shopping cart theft and loss. For similar reasons, airports provide luggage carts for travelers and businesses provide bicycle racks for their customers.
Other structures such as train or bus stop shelters provide customers comfort and protection from the elements while waiting for their transportation. Similarly, telephone booths provide customers comfort, protection and privacy while they make telephone calls.
While these structures and facilities can save the businesses money by reducing shopping and luggage cart loss and claims of vehicle damage, and enhance the customers' experience by avoiding clutters of carts and bicycles outside the stores, and in the case of train or bus stop shelters and telephone booths, by providing them with comfort, protection and privacy, these structures and facilities are expensive to purchase and maintain and provide no direct revenues to the businesses.
Furthermore, these structures and facilities can become worn-out and battered after being exposed to the elements over an extended period of time. These worn-out and battered structures and facilities can be a blemish or eyesore at the front of an otherwise pristine and/or well-maintained business, particularly because they are often located in high traffic areas.
Many of these structures and facilities are constructed with a space created by two aligned walls of equal length where carts and bicycles can be held, or within which customers can stand or sit in the case of train or bus stop shelters and telephone booths (the space is hereinafter referred to as the “enclosure”). Advertisement panels may be affixed on the walls of these structures and facilities, and each panel has two sides, one facing the enclosure, and one facing away from it, both of which can display various advertisements simultaneously. These advertisements generate on-going revenues for the businesses and also make the structures and facilities more attractive.
Examples of shopping cart corrals having aligned walls on which advertising panels are affixed are shown in U.S. application Ser. No. 12/456,875, filed Jun. 24, 2009, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
However, the aligned advertisement panels prevent customers from viewing both panels simultaneously and also from viewing one of the panels in an unobstructed fashion in the event that an object such as a vehicle is parked alongside the panel, when customers approach from the side of the structure or facility, as discussed in more detail below in connection with FIG. 1.
Accordingly, a need or potential for benefit exists for a facility or structure with at least two substantially parallel advertisement panels arranged in a staggered fashion to enhance visibility and allow simultaneous viewing of as many advertisements as possible on the two substantially parallel panels.
For simplicity and clarity of illustration, the drawing figures illustrate the general manner of construction, and descriptions and details of well-known features and techniques may be omitted to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the invention. Additionally, elements in the drawing figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of certain embodiments of the present invention. The same reference numerals in different figures denote the same elements.
The terms “first,” “second,” “third,” “fourth,” and the like in the description and in the claims, if any, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments described herein are, for example, capable of operation in sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein. Furthermore, the terms “include,” and “have” and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, device, corral, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to those elements, but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, system, article, device, corral, or apparatus.
The terms “left,” “right,” “front,” “back,” “top,” “bottom,” “over,” “under,” and the like in the description and in the claims, if any, are used for descriptive purposes and not necessarily for describing permanent relative positions. It is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances such that the embodiments of the invention described herein are, for example, capable of operation in other orientations than those illustrated or otherwise described herein.
The terms “couple,” “coupled,” “couples,” “coupling,” and the like should be broadly understood and refer to connecting two or more elements or signals, electrically, mechanically and/or otherwise. Two or more electrical elements may be electrically coupled but not be mechanically or otherwise coupled; two or more mechanical elements may be mechanically coupled, but not be electrically or otherwise coupled; two or more electrical elements may be mechanically coupled, but not be electrically or otherwise coupled; and two or more mechanical elements may be electrically coupled, but not be mechanically or otherwise coupled. Coupling may be for any length of time, e.g., permanent or semi-permanent or only for an instant.
The absence of the word “removably,” “removable,” and the like near the word “coupled,” and the like does not mean that the coupling, etc. in question is or is not removable.